Community concerns about the Minor Hill/Emily Sharp Park area were clear from responses to the Williamsburg neighborhood survey. This small area is the sole parkland within our community association boundaries. Many Williamsburg residents – responding to open-ended questions on what they liked most about the Williamsburg neighborhood – expressed appreciation for the lovely natural surroundings and mature trees that grace our community. At the same time, Williamsburg residents – responding to open-ended questions on what they liked least about the Williamsburg neighborhood – expressed dismay at the paucity of parkland and low sense of community in the immediate neighborhood. Many residents see a link between these two problems, nothing that the lack of parkland and recreational facilities means there are few places (other than Nottingham Elementary School and Little Falls Presbyterian Church) where neighbors can congregate, socialize, and develop a sense of community.

Williamsburg neighbors view the Minor Hill area in terms of its potential for addressing these problems. Many favor beautifying the green spaces with wild flowers and landscaping to soften the structures associated with the water tanks. Some suggest incorporating walking paths, perhaps around the perimeter. Others favor adding a walking/jogging path with workout stations. Still others advocate construction of a tot playground, noting that the crowds of small children and parents at the Harrison Street Tot Lot demonstrates a clear unmet need for such a facility in the neighborhood at a time when older residents are moving out and are being replaced by a new generation of families with young children.

Responding to these concerns, Williamsburg activists incorporated a series of recommendations for Minor Hill into the Neighborhood Conservation Plan. Recommendation 2 was to "preserve Minor Hill, including Emily Sharp Park and the water storage facility, as a natural open space." The Conservation Plan identified four ways to do this:

• Evaluating the existing landscaping and hardscape and creating a master plan to create visual unity throughout the site. Using this plan as a guide, install appropriate landscaping and hardscape to make the site more attractive and inviting to residents. Residents have expressed a desire for more flowers and flowering shrubs.
• Protecting the mature trees on the site.
• Clearing away underbrush to allow pedestrians better access to the site.
• Implementing erosion control measures to protect the slope between the park and the storage facility and to improve drainage in the park.

Recommendation 3 proposed providing appropriate recreation facilities on Minor Hill by constructing a children's play area and initiating a feasibility study to determine what types of recreational uses are practical and appropriate.

In our August 2000 meeting, residents voted to make Minor Hill one of two priority projects competing for Neighborhood Conservation Plan funds in the spring funding round. We are now working with County officials to submit this item for the spring funding round.

We explored two options. The first involved asking the County to develop a Minor Hill Use Plan. This approach has both drawbacks and benefits.

• The advantages of developing a use plan is that this process would guarantee involvement by all County offices with a stake in Minor Hill, including those responsible for the County water supply. The process also ensures that all neighbors would have ample opportunity to lobby for their favorite measures and to protect their interests. Moreover, measures that are included in a use plan are eligible for several types of County funding, not just scarce Neighborhood Conservation funds. Finally, adoption of a use plan would also protect Minor Hill from future cell tower threats.
• The disadvantage is that it would introduce an additional step into the process of seeing improvement on the property. It would also use up one of our four priority projects to which we are entitled as a neighborhood with a newly-approved Conservation Plan.

To remedy this disadvantage, we asked the County to develop a second option, one that would combine a use plan with some immediate, short-term beautification in the Minor Hill/Emily Sharp Park area, including park benches, trail landscaping, and plantings. More Information on the two options proposed by the County.

We eventually chose a project proposal that combined the Use Plan with some short-term improvements. More Information on the Minor Hill Project Proposal we submitted for the Spring 2001 Funding Round.

However, at the 14 June 2001 NCAC meeting, NCAC members voted to reject the short-term components of the Minor Hill project. They did, however, fund the $40K Minor Hill Use Plan.

Short Term Improvements: In 2001, while the Minor Hill Use Plan was being developed, the Minor Hill Task Force took several steps to carry out the membership's mandate to explore alternate funding for some short-term improvements.

• In July 2001, members of the Minor Hill Task Force surveyed the area and took photos documenting various maintenance problems, as well as issues we would like the Minor Hill Use Plan to address. We used the photos to create an eight-page Minor Hill Photo Album. To review this material, click here.
• In August 2001, the Task Force emailed relevant staffers from County Parks, Public Works, and Environmental Services. We enclosed the web location of the Minor Hill Photo Album and asked for a meeting to go over the problems and the remedies we suggested.
• On 16 October 2001, the Task Force met relevant County staffers (including Jill Yutan, the Neighborhood Services staffer working with us on the Minor Hill Project) at Minor Hill to take a walking tour of the water facility and Sharp Park.
• As a result of that meeting, we have identified issues which the County will try to address as short-term maintenance projects and those which will be addressed by the Minor Hill Use Plan. Click here for a copy of that report.
• We also explored the possibility of getting private donations to cover some Sharp Park improvements.
• In addition, we will get some of the elements of the Minor Hill project (such as textured crosswalks) funded through the Powhatan Street Traffic Calming Project (see previous article). The landscaped traffic islands included in that project should also help to soften and beautify the approach to Minor Hill.
  

Some of the short-term improvement measures we requested in 2001 were completed the following year, when the Parks Department has did a clean-up activities in Sharp Park.

• Parks removed the old wood steps and installed new ones.
• At WCA request, Parks installed an outdoor information kiosk (above) in Sharp Park, where Powhatan Street intersects with the Williamsburg Traffic Circle. The kiosk provides a place for the Civic Association to post information about Civic Association projects and upcoming meetings. Neighbors can also use it to post "for sale" notices and information on other community activities.
• Parks removed the aging wooden bench near the bus stop in the Park and has installed a new cement footing. The old bench wasreplaced by a new bench, pictured below:

Minor Hill Use Plan: Work to develop the Minor Hill Use Plan got underway during the winter of 2002. Jill Yutan, from the County's Neighborhood Services staff, hired a consultant to prepare a detailed survey of the entire site. The survey included the location of all visible improvements and utilities, existing tree and shrub locations, and a two-foot topography of the site. The survey crew also located existing fencing and tank locations – a step that will allow County personnel to make informed recommendations about proposals for a fencing plan that will ensure the integrity of the water supply. Click here for a Site Map of Minor Hill and Sharp Park.

After a series of working meetings with relevant County staff, we completed a draft Minor Hill Use Plan and set about getting neighborhood feedback. The Use Plan was approved by WCA at our membership meeting in July 2002. During our August 2002 meeting, we approved a motion to incorporate the Use Plan into our Neighborhood Conservation Plan. The County Board approved this change in November 2002. More Information on the Minor Hill Use Plan.

Implementing the Use Plan: On 27 August 2002, WCA voted unanimously in favor of a motion to adopt the Minor Hill Use Plan as an amendment to our September 1999 Williamsburg Neighborhood Conservation Plan. The Executive Committee met on 2 September 2002 and took the following decisions:

• To use the $25K remaining from our initial Minor Hill project to fund the measures for Area A (i.e., to remove the chain link/barbed wire fence along N. Powhatan Street; install a new taller, dark green chain link fence on both sides of the pump house; remove the low metal fence which bisects the area north of the pump house; install shade trees along Powhatan Street behind the sidewalk)
• To recommend that the measures for areas B, C, and D (totaling about $72K) be embodied in an NC project for the Fall 2002 funding round.

Minor Hill 2 NC Project: During our September 2002 business meeting, we approved a resolution that Williamsburg adopt the Minor Hill II Project as our priority NC project for the Fall 2002 funding round. We submitted it to the Neighborhood Conservation Advisory Committee. It came up for approval at the December NCAC funding session, but was not funded.

In March 2003, we voted to resubmit the Minor Hill 2 project as our priority project at the Spring 2003 NC funding round. This time it was accepted. More Information on Minor Hill 2 NC Project

Minor Hill Area A Measures: Meanwhile, progress on the Area A measures - which involve removal of the chain link fence along Powhatan Street and installation of a new taller chain link fence on both sides of the pump house - appears to be just around the corner. We have enough money left over from the Minor Hill Use Plan Project to fund the Area A measures and were hoping to move ahead in the spring of 2003. However, the County was reluctant to let us proceed until the fencing studies were completed. By summer 2003, these problems eventually were resolved.

On-Site Meeting: On July 22nd, 2003, members of the Minor Hill Task Force met on Minor Hill with Jill Yutan (the landscape architect from Neighborhood Services) and Michael Collins (Public Works). We went over each component of the Minor Hill project, including the Area A improvements, which involves repositioning a fence and opening up a small green space to residents.

• The fencing for Area A has been ordered and probably will be installed this fall.
• The trail and picnic table for Area A likely will be installed this fall or early spring.
• Ms Yutan is requesting a Parks crew remove invasive plant material in several areas on the site.
• Over the winter, Ms Yutan also expects to have a plan for the butterfly garden drafted and submitted for neighborhood review.
• This fall, Public Works probably will remove those pieces of asphalt scheduled for removal.

How You Can Help or Make an Input: Contact Don Gross (phone: 703-237-105) to learn more. Or, you can email your comments to the other leaders of the Minor Hill Task Force: Jim Toronto and Steve Taub.

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